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April 19, 2021

What we assume

Raphael Jenkins

I smoked my first blunt on a soccer field with my
play cousins. A video of Tupac taught me how to
twist the leaf I’d just moistened and filled with pot
into a pearl. In that magic hour light, we spark &
breathe the pungent white noise, send it leftward
watching each other become what we assume
men are. We chief ’til we smell like the big homies—
our eyelids plump slits hiding fire, dustbowls for mouths.

Raphael prefers to go by Ralph, as he feels it suits him better and he’s heard every Ninja Turtle joke ever uttered. He is a native of Detroit, Michigan currently residing in Kentucky with his Boo-thang and their four-year-old boy. He is a chef by day and an essayist, poet, screenwriter in his dreams. He, like Issa Rae, is rooting for everybody Black. His work has been featured (or is forthcoming) on his mama’s fridge, his close friends’ inboxes, 3 Elements Review, Frontier Poetry, Flypaper Lit, Rust + Moth, Alien Literary Magazine and elsewhere.

Currently available works: https://linktr.ee/RALPHEEBOI

TWITTER & IG: @RALPHEEBOI